Shooting Death of Sacramento Muslim Man Eyed as Possible Hate Crime

The Council of American Islamic relations held a press conference Thursday for Hassan Alawsi, a Sacramento-area Muslim man shot and killed in the parking lot of Home Depot off of Florin Road March 16.

“Hassan Alawsi left war-torn Iraq for a better life. To provide. Now, he will return in a casket,” CAIR’s Basim Elkarra said.

At first, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Department thought Alawsi’s murder was random but information from the family of the alleged shooter, Jeffrey Michael Caylor, lead them to believe it may have been racially motivated.

“It seems he has a dislike for what he describes as a Muslim community,” Sheriff’s Department Sergeant Jim Barnes said.

Investigators have Caylor, 44, in custody. Video of the suspect shows him stalking Alawsi in the minutes leading up to the shooting.

Still, the Sheriff’s Department will not confirm Alawsi’s death to be a hate crime.

FOX40 News also discovered that Caylor was previously convicted of attempted murder in 1992, and served 10 years behind bars.